December 12, 2020 | Luke 15:1–7 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue What does it mean when we say, “The Lord is my shepherd” (Ps. 23:1)? Phillip Keller offers an answer to this question in his book, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23. “This thought alone should stir my spirit, quicken my own sense of awareness, and […]
December 11, 2020 | 1 Corinthians 13 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue “Love Divine, all loves excelling,” begins Charles Wesley’s famous hymn. “Joy of heaven to earth come down / Fix in us thy humble dwelling / All thy faithful mercies crown./ Jesus, thou art all compassion / Pure, unbounded love thou art; / Visit us […]
December 10, 2020 | 1 John 3:11–24 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue During a lockdown in Vietnam to combat the COVID-19 virus, some people had difficulty obtaining enough food. In response, a Ho Chi Minh City businessman set up free “rice ATMs” to help. Anyone who needed it could withdraw (at no cost) one day’s worth […]
December 9, 2020 | John 15:9–17 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue We are living between two Advents: Christ’s birth and His return. How should that affect the way we live? A.W. Tozer answered: “In the midst of our lives, and between the two great mountain peaks of God’s acts in the world, we look back and […]
December 8, 2020 | John 14:23–31 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue Do you believe that being a Christian means denying yourself? While this is a basic biblical truth about discipleship, a recent survey revealed that only 36 percent of churchgoers “strongly agreed” with it. Nineteen percent actually “disagreed.” What we may choose to forget is that […]
December 7, 2020 | John 13:1-35 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue The classic Christmas movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” celebrates the sacrificial love of its main character, George Bailey. As a young man, George gave up his dreams of success and travel, to stay and help his father and his community. When he almost lost everything, […]
December 6, 2020 | John 3:1-21 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue In China, some parents follow their freshman children to university. They’re allowed to camp nearby for a month in order to help them adjust to life away from home by, for example, cooking their meals or washing their laundry. Tianjin University offers “tents of love” […]
December 5, 2020 | Isaiah 40:25-31 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue Forty Roman soldiers in 4th-century Armenia disobeyed the emperor’s order. These brave Christians stood firm, refusing to offer a pagan sacrifice. They were imprisoned and tortured, stripped, and herded onto a frozen pond. Warm baths were offered to anyone who would deny their faith. But […]
December 4, 2020 | Psalm 130 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue Do you have biblical hope? The great nineteenth-century preacher Charles Spurgeon responded: “When you are cleaned right out, when even the last rusty counterfeit farthing has been emptied out of your pocket and you stand before your God as a wretched, starving and bankrupt beggar, […]
December 3, 2020 | Romans 8:18–25 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue “In the barn on Christmas Eve, after all the people leave, The animals in voices low, remember Christmas long ago.” So begins The Animals’ Christmas Eve. In this children’s book, the animals retell the first Christmas, recalling the birth of the Christ-child and how He […]